Hi all! Just thought I'd share a neat little purchase I made. I was browsing eBay, as I normally do, and came across this listing. The picture leaves much to be desired, but I thought I'd click anyway, just in case a rarer coin was included. The second image was much better. I wonder why they didn't put that as their first image? They would have probably attracted so many more bidders. I won the lot for just under £13, and this is what arrived! I'm super stoked with this lot, particularly that beautiful Magnentius follis View attachment 1310851 The coin looks much better in hand, and is so detailed, especially his thick eyebrows Share any coins that you bought that were better than pictured! EDIT: It looks like I misattributed the Magnentius, and I think it's actually Decentius. If anyone knows a precise attribution, I'd welcome any ideas! EDIT 2: Holy cow I think it's this one from Ambianum mint! https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/...0001/lot-916b86aa-a4d9-4940-afff-a43200d0e4c6
Wow! What a difference in hand, @Harry G! You got a great deal because the seller made his coins look unappealing. That Maxentius is a lovely example! Frank Robinson's photos are notoriously unflattering. Here's the photo from his auction: And here's my photo:
Those are great! In hand...not so much in the seller's photos I too have been perusing ebay sales with poor images. I purchased a few coins from a seller who had bad photos and descriptions and have been very pleased when the coins arrived.
I'm mostly interested in early US, 1793-1857. Right now my concentration is on Draped Bust half cents and cents. And trying to ID varieties of some of those coins is almost impossible from poor photos. I can only remember cherrypicking one coin on eBay. It was an R-5 Capped Bust quarter variety. The images were good enough to ID the variety. Who knows what I've missed because of bad images.
I buy a lot of old Indian coins, some 2000 years old and more. Many times they are not identified properly, so I do my homework and sometimes come up with a winner. The coin below was completely mis-identified and I got it cheap from ebay. 950-958 Kshema Gupta & Didda Rani AE stater. "Parva Gupta was succeeded by his son Kshema Gupta in A.D. 950. He was a prince of low habits, and lost a portion of his dominions by foreign invasion. He married Didda, the daughter of Sinha Raja of Lahor, and died after a reign of eight years and a half. His coin was a joint issue with his wife queen Didda." Courtesy of Ancient Indian Coin Collection blogspot.com
